"I am standing inside the Hard Rock Casino in Tampa -- and becoming convinced that Charlie Crist got this one right.

To say that this place is busy would be like saying the slot machines are a little tight. It's an understatement.

The casino has more than 3,200 machines, more than many of the mammoth resorts on the Las Vegas Strip. And yet vacant seats are a rarity.

The hotel has room rates listed at $360 a night. And yet not only is the place booked, people are in the lobby and out by the pool begging for rooms.

The indisputable fact is that gambling is already here.

And Floridians are so starved for it, they're willing to go to a casino without odds-friendly table games to pour their money into cash-hungry machines.

People here even pay for drinks . . . in a casino! The horror.

All of this is why Crist struck a compact with the Seminole Tribe, which operates the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa and a similar resort in South Florida. He wants taxpayers to get a piece of the action."

Get the Story:
Scott Maxwell: Taking names: Crist's bet on casinos looks like aces (The Orlando Sentinel 3/2)